Jesus in Context

A Lamp Belongs on a Lampstand

Household Life

Jesus uses an ordinary household oil lamp to illustrate the absurdity of receiving light only to conceal it.

Scripture: Mark 4:21-23

The Seed Growing by Itself

Agriculture

Mark's distinctive parable draws upon the farmer's limited control over the hidden biological process between sowing and harvest.

Scripture: Mark 4:26-29

Legion, the Swine, and the Healed Man

Historical/Cultural Context

The Gerasene exorcism combines Roman military vocabulary, a large herd of swine, and Jesus' unusual command that the healed man publicly tell what God has done for him.

Scripture: Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39

Talitha Koum: Little Girl, Arise

Language and Idiom

Mark preserves Jesus' Aramaic words to Jairus' daughter and then records the very ordinary instruction that the restored girl be given something to eat.

Scripture: Mark 5:41-43; Luke 8:55

Jesus Sends His Messengers Two by Two

Discipleship

Jesus sends His representatives in pairs, a practice offering practical companionship while also fitting biblical patterns of corroborating testimony.

Scripture: Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1

The Disciples Given to Jesus and Receiving His Words

Discipleship

Jesus describes His disciples as people given to Him by the Father who have received the Father's word and recognized that Jesus was sent by God.

Scripture: John 17:6-8

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

Jewish Religious Practice

Jesus explicitly intercedes for His disciples, distinguishing the immediate focus of His prayer and describing what belongs to the Father and Son as mutually shared.

Scripture: John 17:9-10

Keep Them in Your Name

Discipleship

As Jesus anticipates leaving the world while His disciples remain in it, He asks the Holy Father to preserve those entrusted to Him.

Scripture: John 17:11-12

The Son of Perdition and the Fulfillment of Scripture

Language and Idiom

Jesus refers to Judas with the Semitic-style expression “son of perdition” and places his betrayal within the Gospel's pattern of Scripture being fulfilled.

Scripture: John 17:12

That They May Have My Joy Fulfilled in Them

Discipleship

Jesus explains that He speaks these things while still in the world so that His own joy may be brought to fullness in His disciples.

Scripture: John 17:13

In the World but Not of the World

Discipleship

Jesus does not ask that His disciples be removed from the world but that they be preserved from evil while living within a world whose values they no longer share.

Scripture: John 17:14-16

Knowing Jesus and Knowing the Father

Discipleship

When Jesus opponents ask where His Father is, Jesus answers that their failure to know Him also reveals their failure to know the Father.

Scripture: John 8:19